I hit something firm, hard. It forces the air from my lungs, making my eyes water. I expected it to hurt, but this death, it isn’t painful.

Something soft tickles against my cheek, forcing me to open my eyes. The tip of a feather pulls away as Mihr’s face comes into focus. I’m not dead after all, it appears Mihr kept his promise. Relief, followed by a sudden rush of adrenaline, rips through my body.

Ether dropped me, only for Mihr to catch me.

We are hovering in the air, his huge wings keeping us airborne. I grab at his arms, my fingers digging into the thin material of his long-sleeved top as I suck in deep breaths, my lungs screaming for oxygen. Mihr tips his head, asking me if I am okay. I’m already beginning to understand the subtleness of his language.

“I’m better now I’m not plummeting to the ground,” I manage to stutter.

He nods his head, his eyes briefly falling to mine. Within the summer blue are swirls of relief and a huge dose of concern.

“What happened? Why did Ether drop me?”

Mihr shakes his head, still not willing to communicate with words and unable to communicate with sign language, given he is holding me across his body. Instead, he pulls me tighter against his chest, tips forward and we move through the air in a sudden rush of flapping wings. We are moving much faster than I had been with Ether. Mihr’s face is strained with the effort of flying at such a speed. He doesn’t acknowledge me further, his gaze focused on a spot in the distance.

Hanging on for dear life, I have to trust that Mihr won’t drop me. I curl my fingers around the material of his top. It is only then I realise that we are touching skin to skin, my knuckles pressing against the bare skin of his neck. I snatch my hand away, but not before the lingering warmth has seeped into my skin and settled in my bloodstream.

Shit.

I wait for the cold to smother the warmth, just like it had with Gabe, but it doesn’t come. There is only a lingering, comforting warmth. What the hell is going on?

I don’t get to ask as Mihr tightens his grip, swerves sharply to his right and we nosedive towards the ground. A scream tears from my mouth. I feel Mihr’s fingers dig into my skin as his muscles flex under the strain of holding me. As we plummet, out of the corner of my eye I see a dark shape heading towards us. It is camouflaged well, and had it not been for the fact the clouds suddenly parted and the moon glinted against its metal wings I may not have seen it.

Metal wings?

The angel… No, it is not an angel. It has a humanoid body like them, wings, but it is not the same. This creature wants to kill. It wants to maim. Death by its hands is violent and savage. I know all this in one glance before two angels I do recognise tackle it mid-flight and the three tumble through the air. Gabe and Ether pummel their fists into the creature, who swipes back with jagged claws. I see blood spurt, but I have no idea who it belongs to.

“Noooooo,” I scream, but my cry is ripped from my mouth as Mihr rushes upwards once again, flying us away from the fight that is clearly taking place. Worry replaces fear, deep, sick-making worry.

Ether dropped me to protect me, and now he and Gabe are risking injury to ensure my safety.

My stomach rises into my mouth. I have the sudden urge to throw up. Pushing the palms of my hands against Mihr’s chest, I turn my head to the side and gag, swallowing down the bile in my throat. Mihr looks down at me with concern. The tip of one wing strokes against my face as I wipe a trembling hand against my mouth. I am completely and utterly vulnerable in his hands. His feathers stroke against my cheek and though it is comforting, though it makes me feel safe, that is short lived when I realise that if his wings aren’t flapping, then we are no longer flying, even though we are still ten thousand feet above the ground.

“Mihr, what is happening?” I ask, swallowing down another bout of nausea.

His summer-blue eyes and expressive face tell me we are safe. Safe from falling to our deaths and safe from the creature, for now at least. All of that I understand from one look. Satisfied that I’ve understood him, Mihr’s arm loosens beneath the back of my knees and he shifts me so that I am clutched against his length, chest to chest, hips pressed against hips, with nothing but a thin layer of material between us.

Am I afraid? Yes, but not for the reasons I should be. It has been a very long time since I have been in such close contact with a man. First Ether, now Mihr. My thoughts spiral off into a dangerous direction, a direction that has me firmly placed between three angels and damn the consequences.

Think about something else, Fern.

Mihr tenses as I move against his length, trying and failing to not feel afraid as I adjust myself into a comfortable position within his arms. In the end, with nowhere else to put my hands, I press my palms against the firm muscle of his chest. I can feel the beat of his heart. It is pounding fast, obviously from the effort of flying with such speed and skill.

“Will Gabe and Ether be okay?” I ask, blinking away the thought of them tackling that creature to protect me. My voice trails off when we are suddenly jerked upwards.

It feels as though we are being pulled in some kind of vortex, the air around us rushing upwards too. Mihr’s wings spread around my back just like they had in my kitchen back home, but this time they don’t hold me loosely. This time, his wings pull me in for a tight hug. They are incredibly soft but also have the ability to make me feel inexplicably safe. There is a strength in his gentleness. One that I am drawn to. Just like I am drawn to the darkness in Gabe and the leadership of Ether.

My hair flicks around my face as we begin to spin like a whirlpool in a bath, only in reverse, going up instead of down. We are twirling within a column of cloud, the centre of which is hollowed out. Within the silver grey I spot flashes of bright blue stars. They sparkle and glitter like sapphires, reminding me of the stone still on the floor back in my house.

Even though my head tells me we are still high above the ground, that if he let me go I could fall to my death, my heart tells me that Mihr wouldn’t do that. His wings circle me tighter, and I am certain that he won’t.

Where is Ether now? Where is Gabe? What happened? What was that creature?

All questions I will seek answers to as soon as Mihr’s hands are free to explain.

The tickle of Mihr’s hair against my cheek and the press of his palm on my lower back pulls me out of my thoughts and into the present. He taps me on my shoulder and I lean away from him slightly. Mihr points upwards, tipping his head back, looking above us. I do the same. I expect to see dark skies, a black night speckled with stars, but instead a dull pink light, like a hazy sun beneath thick cloud, beckons us closer.

Shadows lurk in the mist, separate from the funnel of cloud we are travelling in now, taking form the closer we get to them.

Eventually we come to a standstill. Mihr loosens his hold, lowering me down as firm ground forms beneath us, hidden by a swirl of mist. Dropping his hands from my waist and withdrawing his wings, Mihr steps away from me.

“Welcome to the Shadowlands,” he signs.